The Real Hawkeye
member
Back in the 1980s I was an employee at Herman's Sporting Goods. Anyone remember that bunch? Anyway, management did not hire separate theft prevention people, but they did select a number of the larger and more athletic male employees to drill on security procedures and security codes. Several times we received such codes, and several times young punks would steal things, and we were supposed to stop them. I played along like I would do it, but this was just to keep my job. In reality I never tried hard to tackle anyone stealing from the store, and for reasons having to do with what happened here. Security people are given a lot more responsibility than authority, and that means you can get into deep trouble if something goes wrong. Besides, they weren't paying me enough to risk my neck tackling someone I knew nothing about, nor did we have the training and organization to do it properly.
After this, however, I worked as an attendant in a psychiatric hospital. I was "one of those men in the white suits who come and take you away." I worked the acute unit where all the real wackoes were. When they wanted their next dose of Thorazine, and the nurses wouldn't give it to them as often as they wanted it, these patients could get extremely violent. In this context, I had lots of backup and we were organized and trained in such a way as to be able to handle these people safely. In this situation, I was part of a team that actually did tackle lots of very dangerous individuals, and I never got hurt, nor did anyone we tackled get hurt. In this case, this was part of my job description, and I had the full and unambiguous backing of the hospital. Different situation, apparently, from what heppened here.
After this, however, I worked as an attendant in a psychiatric hospital. I was "one of those men in the white suits who come and take you away." I worked the acute unit where all the real wackoes were. When they wanted their next dose of Thorazine, and the nurses wouldn't give it to them as often as they wanted it, these patients could get extremely violent. In this context, I had lots of backup and we were organized and trained in such a way as to be able to handle these people safely. In this situation, I was part of a team that actually did tackle lots of very dangerous individuals, and I never got hurt, nor did anyone we tackled get hurt. In this case, this was part of my job description, and I had the full and unambiguous backing of the hospital. Different situation, apparently, from what heppened here.
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